{"id":8023,"date":"2026-02-04T18:50:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lecturia.org\/?p=8023"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T22:50:31","slug":"flannery-oconnor-a-good-man-is-hard-to-find","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/short-stories\/flannery-oconnor-a-good-man-is-hard-to-find\/8023\/","title":{"rendered":"Flannery O\u2019Connor: A Good Man Is Hard to Find"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>\u201cA Good Man Is Hard to Find\u201d is a short story by Flannery O’Connor, published in 1953. A family from the southern United States embarks on a vacation trip to Florida. During the trip, the grandmother entertains her grandchildren with stories from her youth. Captivated, the children insist on taking a detour to visit an old plantation that their grandmother mentions in her stories. Despite the father’s resistance, he finally gives in to family pressure and takes a rural road suggested by his mother. This seemingly innocuous decision will lead the group to an unexpected encounter with destiny.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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\"Flannery<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A Good Man Is Hard to Find<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Flannery O\u2019Connor
(Cuento completo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother didn\u2019t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey\u2019s mind. Bailey was the son she lived with, her only boy. He was sitting on the edge of his chair at the table, bent over the orange sports section of the Journal.<\/em> \u201cNow look here, Bailey,\u201d she said, \u201csee here, read this,\u201d and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. \u201cHere this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn\u2019t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn\u2019t answer to my conscience if I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey didn\u2019t look up from his reading so she wheeled around then and faced the children\u2019s mother, a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green headkerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit\u2019s ears. She was sitting on the sofa, feeding the baby his apricots out of a jar. \u201cThe children have been to Florida before,\u201d the old lady said. \u201cYou all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never have been to east Tennessee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children\u2019s mother didn\u2019t seem to hear her but the eight-year-old boy, John Wesley, a stocky child with glasses, said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?\u201d He and the little girl, June Star, were reading the funny papers on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t stay at home to be queen for a day,\u201d June Star said without raising her yellow head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes and what would you do if this fellow, The Misfit, caught you?\u201d the grandmother asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d smack his face,\u201d John Wesley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t stay at home for a million bucks,\u201d June Star said. \u201cAfraid she\u2019d miss something. She has to go everywhere we go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right, Miss,\u201d the grandmother said. \u201cJust remember that the next time you want me to curl your hair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June Star said her hair was naturally curly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car, ready to go. She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it. She didn\u2019t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself. Her son, Bailey, didn\u2019t like to arrive at a motel with a cat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She sat in the middle of the back seat with John Wesley and June Star on either side of her. Bailey and the children\u2019s mother and the baby sat in front and they left Atlanta at eight forty-five with the mileage on the car at 55890. The grandmother wrote this down because she thought it would be interesting to say how many miles they had been when they got back. It took them twenty minutes to reach the outskirts of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. The children\u2019s mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said she thought it was going to be a good day for driving, neither too hot nor too cold, and she cautioned Bailey that the speed limit was fifty-five miles an hour and that the patrolmen hid themselves behind billboards and small clumps of trees and sped out after you before you had a chance to slow down. She pointed out interesting details of the scenery: Stone Mountain; the blue granite that in some places came up to both sides of the highway; the brilliant red clay banks slightly streaked with purple; and the various crops that made rows of green lace-work on the ground. The trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled. The children were reading comic magazines and their mother had gone back to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go through Georgia fast so we won\u2019t have to look at it much,\u201d John Wesley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I were a little boy,\u201d said the grandmother, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t talk about my native state that way. Tennessee has the mountains and Georgia has the hills.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground,\u201d John Wesley said, \u201cand Georgia is a lousy state too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou said it,\u201d June Star said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my time,\u201d said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, \u201cchildren were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!\u201d she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. \u201cWouldn\u2019t that make a picture, now?\u201d she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have any britches on,\u201d June Star said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe probably didn\u2019t have any,\u201d the grandmother explained. \u201cLittle niggers in the country don\u2019t have things like we do. If I could paint, I\u2019d paint that picture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children exchanged comic books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother offered to hold the baby and the children\u2019s mother passed him over the front seat to her. She set him on her knee and bounced him and told him about the things they were passing. She rolled her eyes and screwed up her mouth and stuck her leathery thin face into his smooth bland one. Occasionally he gave her a faraway smile. They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island. \u201cLook at the graveyard!\u201d the grandmother said, pointing it out. \u201cThat was the old family burying ground. That belonged to the plantation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s the plantation?\u201d John Wesley asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGone with the Wind,\u201d said the grandmother. \u201cHa. Ha.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the children finished all the comic books they had brought, they opened the lunch and ate it. The grandmother ate a peanut butter sandwich and an olive and would not let the children throw the box and the paper napkins out the window. When there was nothing else to do they played a game by choosing a cloud and making the other two guess what shape it suggested. John Wesley took one the shape of a cow and June Star guessed a cow and John Wesley said, no, an automobile, and June Star said he didn\u2019t play fair, and they began to slap each other over the grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother said she would tell them a story if they would keep quiet. When she told a story, she rolled her eyes and waved her head and was very dramatic. She said once when she was a maiden lady she had been courted by a Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden from Jasper, Georgia. She said he was a very good-looking man and a gentleman and that he brought her a watermelon every Saturday afternoon with his initials cut in it, E. A. T. Well, one Saturday, she said, Mr. Teagarden brought the watermelon and there was nobody at home and he left it on the front porch and returned in his buggy to Jasper, but she never got the watermelon, she said, because a nigger boy ate it when he saw the initials, E. A. T! This story tickled John Wesley\u2019s funny bone and he giggled and giggled but June Star didn\u2019t think it was any good. She said she wouldn\u2019t marry a man that just brought her a watermelon on Saturday. The grandmother said she would have done well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stopped at The Tower for barbecued sandwiches. The Tower was a part stucco and part wood filling station and dance hall set in a clearing outside of Timothy. A fat man named Red Sammy Butts ran it and there were signs stuck here and there on the building and for miles up and down the highway saying, TRY RED SAMMY\u2019S FAMOUS BARBECUE, NONE LIKE FAMOUS RED SAMMY\u2019S! RED SAM! THE FAT BOY WITH THE HAPPY LAUGH, A VETERAN! RED SAMMY\u2019S YOUR MAN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Sammy was lying on the bare ground outside The Tower with his head under a truck while a gray monkey about a foot high, chained to a small chinaberry tree, chattered nearby. The monkey sprang back into the tree and got on the highest limb as soon as he saw the children jump out of the car and run toward him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, The Tower was a long dark room with a counter at one end and tables at the other and dancing space in the middle. They all sat down at a board table next to the nickelodeon and Red Sam\u2019s wife, a tall burnt-brown woman with hair and eyes lighter than her skin, came and took their order. The children\u2019s mother put a dime in the machine and played \u201cThe Tennessee Waltz,\u201d and the grandmother said that tune always made her want to dance. She asked Bailey if he would like to dance but he only glared at her. He didn\u2019t have a naturally sunny disposition like she did and trips made him nervous. The grandmother\u2019s brown eyes were very bright. She swayed her head from side to side and pretended she was dancing in her chair. June Star said play something she could tap to so the children\u2019s mother put in another dime and played a fast number and June Star stepped out onto the dance floor and did her tap routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAin\u2019t she cute?\u201d Red Sam\u2019s wife said, leaning over the counter. \u201cWould you like to come be my little girl?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo I certainly wouldn\u2019t,\u201d June Star said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!\u201d and she ran back to the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAin\u2019t she cute?\u201d the woman repeated, stretching her mouth politely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAren\u2019t you ashamed?\u201d hissed the grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Sam came in and told his wife to quit lounging on the counter and hurry up with these people\u2019s order. His khaki trousers reached just to his hip bones and his stomach hung over them like a sack of meal swaying under his shirt. He came over and sat down at a table nearby and let out a combination sigh and yodel. \u201cYou can\u2019t win,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t win,\u201d and he wiped his sweating red face off with a gray handkerchief. \u201cThese days you don\u2019t know who to trust,\u201d he said. \u201cAin\u2019t that the truth?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are certainly not nice like they used to be,\u201d said the grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo fellers come in here last week,\u201d Red Sammy said, \u201cdriving a Chrysler. It was a old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause you\u2019re a good man!\u201d the grandmother said at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes\u2019m, I suppose so,\u201d Red Sam said as if he were struck with this answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His wife brought the orders, carrying the five plates all at once without a tray, two in each hand and one balanced on her arm. \u201cIt isn\u2019t a soul in this green world of God\u2019s that you can trust,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t count nobody out of that, not nobody,\u201d she repeated, looking at Red Sammy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you read about that criminal, The Misfit, that\u2019s escaped?\u201d asked the grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be a bit surprised if he didn\u2019t attact this place right here,\u201d said the woman. \u201cIf he hears about it being here, I wouldn\u2019t be none surprised to see him. If he hears it\u2019s two cent in the cash register, I wouldn\u2019t be a tall surprised if he…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019ll do,\u201d Red Sam said. \u201cGo bring these people their Co\u2019-Colas,\u201d and the woman went off to get the rest of the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA good man is hard to find,\u201d Red Sammy said. \u201cEverything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and the grandmother discussed better times. The old lady said that in her opinion Europe was entirely to blame for the way things were now. She said the way Europe acted you would think we were made of money and Red Sam said it was no use talking about it, she was exactly right. The children ran outside into the white sunlight and looked at the monkey in the lacy chinaberry tree. He was busy catching fleas on himself and biting each one carefully between his teeth as if it were a delicacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They drove off again into the hot afternoon. The grandmother took cat naps and woke up every few minutes with her own snoring. Outside of Toombsboro she woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady. She said the house had six white columns across the front and that there was an avenue of oaks leading up to it and two little wooden trellis arbors on either side in front where you sat down with your suitor after a stroll in the garden. She recalled exactly which road to turn off to get to it. She knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at an old house, but the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it once again and find out if the little twin arbors were still standing. \u201cThere was a secret panel in this house,\u201d she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were \u201cand the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman through but it was never found…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey!\u201d John Wesley said. \u201cLet\u2019s go see it! We\u2019ll find it! We\u2019ll poke all the woodwork and find it! Who lives there? Where do you turn off at? Hey Pop, can\u2019t we turn off there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe never have seen a house with a secret panel!\u201d June Star shrieked. \u201cLet\u2019s go to the house with the secret panel! Hey Pop, can\u2019t we go see the house with the secret panel!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not far from here, I know,\u201d the grandmother said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t take over twenty minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey was looking straight ahead. His jaw was as rigid as a horseshoe. \u201cNo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mother\u2019s shoulder and whined desperately into her ear that they never had any fun even on their vacation, that they could never do what THEY wanted to do. The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right!\u201d he shouted and drew the car to a stop at the side of the road. \u201cWill you all shut up? Will you all just shut up for one second? If you don\u2019t shut up, we won\u2019t go anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be very educational for them,\u201d the grandmother murmured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d Bailey said, \u201cbut get this: this is the only time we\u2019re going to stop for anything like this. This is the one and only time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dirt road that you have to turn down is about a mile back,\u201d the grandmother directed. \u201cI marked it when we passed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA dirt road,\u201d Bailey groaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After they had turned around and were headed toward the dirt road, the grandmother recalled other points about the house, the beautiful glass over the front doorway and the candle-lamp in the hall. John Wesley said that the secret panel was probably in the fireplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go inside this house,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know who lives there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile you all talk to the people in front, I\u2019ll run around behind and get in a window,\u201d John Wesley suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll all stay in the car,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They turned onto the dirt road and the car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust. The grandmother recalled the times when there were no paved roads and thirty miles was a day\u2019s journey. The dirt road was hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous embankments. All at once they would be on a hill, looking down over the blue tops of trees for miles around, then the next minute, they would be in a red depression with the dust-coated trees looking down on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis place had better turn up in a minute,\u201d Bailey said, \u201cor I\u2019m going to turn around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not much farther,\u201d the grandmother said and just as she said it, a horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up, upsetting her valise in the corner. The instant the valise moved, the newspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching the baby, was thrown out the door onto the ground; the old lady was thrown into the front seat. The car turned over once and landed right-side-up in a gulch off the side of the road. Bailey remained in the drivers seat with the cat\u2014gray-striped with a broad white face and an orange nose\u2014clinging to his neck like a caterpillar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as the children saw they could move their arms and legs, they scrambled out of the car, shouting, \u201cWe\u2019ve had an ACCIDENT!\u201d The grandmother was curled up under the dashboard, hoping she was injured so that Bailey\u2019s wrath would not come down on her all at once. The horrible thought she had had before the accident was that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey removed the cat from his neck with both hands and flung it out the window against the side of a pine tree. Then he got out of the car and started looking for the children\u2019s mother. She was sitting against the side of the red gutted ditch, holding the screaming baby, but she only had a cut down her face and a broken shoulder. \u201cWe\u2019ve had an ACCIDENT!\u201d the children screamed in a frenzy of delight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut nobody\u2019s killed,\u201d June Star said with disappointment as the grandmother limped out of the car, her hat still pinned to her head but the broken front brim standing up at a jaunty angle and the violet spray hanging off the side. They all sat down in the ditch, except the children, to recover from the shock. They were all shaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe a car will come along,\u201d said the children\u2019s mother hoarsely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe I have injured an organ,\u201d said the grandmother, pressing her side, but no one answered her. Bailey\u2019s teeth were clattering. He had on a yellow sport shirt with bright blue parrots designed in it and his face was as yellow as the shirt. The grandmother decided that she would not mention that the house was in Tennessee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The road was about ten feet above and they could see only the tops of the trees on the other side of it. Behind the ditch they were sitting in there were more woods, tall and dark and deep. In a few minutes they saw a car some distance away on top of a hill, coming slowly as if the occupants were watching them. The grandmother stood up and waved both arms dramatically to attract their attention. The car continued to come on slowly, disappeared around a bend and appeared again, moving even slower, on top of the hill they had gone over. It was a big black battered hearse-like automobile. There were three men in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It came to a stop just over them and for some minutes, the driver looked down with a steady expressionless gaze to where they were sitting, and didn\u2019t speak. Then he turned his head and muttered something to the other two and they got out. One was a fat boy in black trousers and a red sweat shirt with a silver stallion embossed on the front of it. He moved around on the right side of them and stood staring, his mouth partly open in a kind of loose grin. The other had on khaki pants and a blue striped coat and a gray hat pulled down very low, hiding most of his face. He came around slowly on the left side. Neither spoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The driver got out of the car and stood by the side of it, looking down at them. He was an older man than the other two. His hair was just beginning to gray and he wore silver-rimmed spectacles that gave him a scholarly look. He had a long creased face and didn\u2019t have on any shirt or undershirt. He had on blue jeans that were too tight for him and was holding a black hat and a gun. The two boys also had guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had an ACCIDENT!\u201d the children screamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother had the peculiar feeling that the bespectacled man was someone she knew. His face was as familiar to her as if she had known him all her life but she could not recall who he was. He moved away from the car and began to come down the embankment, placing his feet carefully so that he wouldn\u2019t slip. He had on tan and white shoes and no socks, and his ankles were red and thin. \u201cGood afternoon,\u201d he said. \u201cI see you all had you a little spill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe turned over twice!\u201d said the grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOncet,\u201d he corrected. \u201cWe seen it happen. Try their car and see will it run, Hiram,\u201d he said quietly to the boy with the gray hat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you got that gun for?\u201d John Wesley asked. \u201cWhatcha gonna do with that gun?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLady,\u201d the man said to the children\u2019s mother, \u201cwould you mind calling them children to sit down by you? Children make me nervous. I want all you all to sit down right together there where you\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you telling US what to do for?\u201d June Star asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind them the line of woods gaped like a dark open mouth. \u201cCome here,\u201d said their mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook here now,\u201d Bailey began suddenly, \u201cwe\u2019re in a predicament! We\u2019re in…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother shrieked. She scrambled to her feet and stood staring. \u201cYou\u2019re The Misfit!\u201d she said. \u201cI recognized you at once!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes\u2019m,\u201d the man said, smiling slightly as if he were pleased in spite of himself to be known, \u201cbut it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn\u2019t of reckernized me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey turned his head sharply and said something to his mother that shocked even the children. The old lady began to cry and The Misfit reddened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLady,\u201d he said, \u201cdon\u2019t you get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don\u2019t mean. I don\u2019t reckon he meant to talk to you thataway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t shoot a lady, would you?\u201d the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again. \u201cI would hate to have to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cListen,\u201d the grandmother almost screamed, \u201cI know you\u2019re a good man. You don\u2019t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes mam,\u201d he said, \u201cfinest people in the world.\u201d When he smiled he showed a row of strong white teeth. \u201cGod never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy\u2019s heart was pure gold,\u201d he said. The boy with the red sweat shirt had come around behind them and was standing with his gun at his hip. The Misfit squatted down on the ground. \u201cWatch them children, Bobby Lee,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know they make me nervous.\u201d He looked at the six of them huddled together in front of him and he seemed to be embarrassed as if he couldn\u2019t think of anything to say. \u201cAin\u2019t a cloud in the sky,\u201d he remarked, looking up at it. \u201cDon\u2019t see no sun but don\u2019t see no cloud neither.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, it\u2019s a beautiful day,\u201d said the grandmother. \u201cListen,\u201d she said, \u201cyou shouldn\u2019t call yourself The Misfit because I know you\u2019re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHush!\u201d Bailey yelled. \u201cHush! Everybody shut up and let me handle this!\u201d He was squatting in the position of a runner about to sprint forward but he didn\u2019t move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pre-chate that, lady,\u201d The Misfit said and drew a little circle in the ground with the butt of his gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll take a half a hour to fix this here car,\u201d Hiram called, looking over the raised hood of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, first you and Bobby Lee get him and that little boy to step over yonder with you,\u201d The Misfit said, pointing to Bailey and John Wesley. \u201cThe boys want to ast you something,\u201d he said to Bailey. \u201cWould you mind stepping back in them woods there with them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cListen,\u201d Bailey began, \u201cwe\u2019re in a terrible predicament! Nobody realizes what this is,\u201d and his voice cracked. His eyes were as blue and intense as the parrots in his shirt and he remained perfectly still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother reached up to adjust her hat brim as if she were going to the woods with him but it came off in her hand. She stood staring at it and after a second she let it fall on the ground. Hiram pulled Bailey up by the arm as if he were assisting an old man. John Wesley caught hold of his father\u2019s hand and Bobby Lee followed. They went off toward the woods and just as they reached the dark edge, Bailey turned and supporting himself against a gray naked pine trunk, he shouted, \u201cI\u2019ll be back in a minute, Mamma, wait on me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCome back this instant!\u201d his mother shrilled but they all disappeared into the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBailey Boy!\u201d the grandmother called in a tragic voice but she found she was looking at The Misfit squatting on the ground in front of her. \u201cI just know you\u2019re a good man,\u201d she said desperately. \u201cYou\u2019re not a bit common!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNome, I ain\u2019t a good man,\u201d The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully, \u201cbut I ain\u2019t the worst in the world neither. My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters. \u2018You know,\u2019 Daddy said, \u2018it\u2019s some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it\u2019s others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. He\u2019s going to be into everything!\u2019\u201d He put on his black hat and looked up suddenly and then away deep into the woods as if he were embarrassed again. \u201cI\u2019m sorry I don\u2019t have on a shirt before you ladies,\u201d he said, hunching his shoulders slightly. \u201cWe buried our clothes that we had on when we escaped and we\u2019re just making do until we can get better. We borrowed these from some folks we met,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s perfectly all right,\u201d the grandmother said. \u201cMaybe Bailey has an extra shirt in his suitcase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll look and see terrectly,\u201d The Misfit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere are they taking him?\u201d the children\u2019s mother screamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDaddy was a card himself,\u201d The Misfit said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t put anything over on him. He never got in trouble with the Authorities though. Just had the knack of handling them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could be honest too if you\u2019d only try,\u201d said the grandmother. \u201cThink how wonderful it would be to settle down and live a comfortable life and not have to think about somebody chasing you all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Misfit kept scratching in the ground with the butt of his gun as if he were thinking about it. \u201cYes\u2019m, somebody is always after you,\u201d he murmured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grandmother noticed how thin his shoulder blades were just behind his hat because she was standing up looking down on him. \u201cDo you ever pray?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shook his head. All she saw was the black hat wiggle between his shoulder blades. \u201cNome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a pistol shot from the woods, followed closely by another. Then silence. The old lady\u2019s head jerked around. She could hear the wind move through the tree tops like a long satisfied insuck of breath. \u201cBailey Boy!\u201d she called.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a gospel singer for a while,\u201d The Misfit said. \u201cI been most everything. Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet,\u201d and he looked up at the children\u2019s mother and the little girl who were sitting close together, their faces white and their eyes glassy; \u201cI even seen a woman flogged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPray, pray,\u201d the grandmother began, \u201cpray, pray…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never was a bad boy that I remember of,\u201d The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, \u201cbut somewheres along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive,\u201d and he looked up and held her attention to him by a steady stare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when you should have started to pray,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat did you do to get sent to the penitentiary that first time?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTurn to the right, it was a wall,\u201d The Misfit said, looking up again at the cloudless sky. \u201cTurn to the left, it was a wall. Look up it was a ceiling, look down it was a floor. I forget what I done, lady. I set there and set there, trying to remember what it was I done and I ain\u2019t recalled it to this day. Oncet in a while, I would think it was coming to me, but it never come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe they put you in by mistake,\u201d the old lady said vaguely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNome,\u201d he said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t no mistake. They had the papers on me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou must have stolen something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Misfit sneered slightly. \u201cNobody had nothing I wanted,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a head-doctor at the penitentiary said what I had done was kill my daddy but I known that for a lie. My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it. He was buried in the Mount Hopewell Baptist churchyard and you can go there and see for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you would pray,\u201d the old lady said, \u201cJesus would help you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d The Misfit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell then, why don\u2019t you pray?\u201d she asked trembling with delight suddenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want no hep,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m doing all right by myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bobby Lee and Hiram came ambling back from the woods. Bobby Lee was dragging a yellow shirt with bright blue parrots in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThow me that shirt, Bobby Lee,\u201d The Misfit said. The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulder and he put it on. The grandmother couldn\u2019t name what the shirt reminded her of. \u201cNo, lady,\u201d The Misfit said while he was buttoning it up, \u201cI found out the crime don\u2019t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you\u2019re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children\u2019s mother had begun to make heaving noises as if she couldn\u2019t get her breath. \u201cLady,\u201d he asked, \u201cwould you and that little girl like to step off yonder with Bobby Lee and Hiram and join your husband?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, thank you,\u201d the mother said faintly. Her left arm dangled helplessly and she was holding the baby, who had gone to sleep, in the other. \u201cHep that lady up, Hiram,\u201d The Misfit said as she struggled to climb out of the ditch, \u201cand Bobby Lee, you hold onto that little girl\u2019s hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to hold hands with him,\u201d June Star said. \u201cHe reminds me of a pig.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fat boy blushed and laughed and caught her by the arm and pulled her off into the woods after Hiram and her mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice. There was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun. There was nothing around her but woods. She wanted to tell him that he must pray. She opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out. Finally she found herself saying, \u201cJesus. Jesus,\u201d meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes\u2019m,\u201d The Misfit said as if he agreed. \u201cJesus thown everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with me except He hadn\u2019t committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one because they had the papers on me. Of course,\u201d he said, \u201cthey never shown me my papers. That\u2019s why I sign myself now. I said long ago, you get you a signature and sign everything you do and keep a copy of it. Then you\u2019ll know what you done and you can hold up the crime to the punishment and see do they match and in the end you\u2019ll have something to prove you ain\u2019t been treated right. I call myself The Misfit,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause I can\u2019t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a piercing scream from the woods, followed closely by a pistol report. \u201cDoes it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain\u2019t punished at all?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJesus!\u201d the old lady cried. \u201cYou\u2019ve got good blood! I know you wouldn\u2019t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I\u2019ll give you all the money I\u2019ve got!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLady,\u201d The Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the woods, \u201cthere never was a body that give the undertaker a tip.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were two more pistol reports and the grandmother raised her head like a parched old turkey hen crying for water and called, \u201cBailey Boy, Bailey Boy!\u201d as if her heart would break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,\u201d The Misfit continued, \u201cand He shouldn\u2019t have done it. He thown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it\u2019s nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn\u2019t, then it\u2019s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can\u2014by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness,\u201d he said and his voice had become almost a snarl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe He didn\u2019t raise the dead,\u201d the old lady mumbled, not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy that she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t there so I can\u2019t say He didn\u2019t,\u201d The Misfit said. \u201cI wisht I had of been there,\u201d he said, hitting the ground with his fist. \u201cIt ain\u2019t right I wasn\u2019t there because if I had of been there I would of known. Listen lady,\u201d he said in a high voice, \u201cif I had of been there I would of known and I wouldn\u2019t be like I am now.\u201d His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother\u2019s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man\u2019s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, \u201cWhy you\u2019re one of my babies. You\u2019re one of my own children!\u201d She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest. Then he put his gun down on the ground and took off his glasses and began to clean them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiram and Bobby Lee returned from the woods and stood over the ditch, looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay in a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child\u2019s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without his glasses, The Misfit\u2019s eyes were red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking. \u201cTake her off and thow her where you thown the others,\u201d he said, picking up the cat that was rubbing itself against his leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was a talker, wasn\u2019t she?\u201d Bobby Lee said, sliding down the ditch with a yodel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe would of been a good woman,\u201d The Misfit said, \u201cif it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome fun!\u201d Bobby Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShut up, Bobby Lee,\u201d The Misfit said. \u201cIt\u2019s no real pleasure in life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE END<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Good Man Is Hard to Find\u201d is a short story by Flannery O’Connor, published in 1953. A family from the southern United States embarks on a vacation trip to Florida. During the trip, the grandmother entertains her grandchildren with stories from her youth. Captivated, the children insist on taking a detour to visit an old plantation that their grandmother mentions in her stories. Despite the father’s resistance, he finally gives in to family pressure and takes a rural road suggested by his mother. This seemingly innocuous decision will lead the group to an unexpected encounter with destiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[604,630,570],"class_list":["post-8023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories","tag-flannery-oconnor-en","tag-realism","tag-united-states","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":559,"label":"Short stories"}],"post_tag":[{"value":604,"label":"Flannery O'Connor"},{"value":630,"label":"Realism"},{"value":570,"label":"United States"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Flannery-OConnor-Un-hombre-bueno-es-dificil-de-encontrar.webp",1024,1024,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Juan Pablo Guevara","author_link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/author\/spartakku\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":559,"name":"Short stories","slug":"short-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":419,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":559,"category_count":419,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Short stories","category_nicename":"short-stories","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":604,"name":"Flannery O'Connor","slug":"flannery-oconnor-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":604,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":630,"name":"Realism","slug":"realism","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":630,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":570,"name":"United States","slug":"united-states","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":570,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":294,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}